Sermon 8. Difficulty of Realizing Sacred
Privileges

"This is the Day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and
be glad in it." Psalm cxviii. 24.

[Note] {94} IT is always very difficult
to realize any great joy or great sorrow. We cannot realize it by
wishing to do so. What brings joys and sorrows of this world home to us,
is their circumstances and accompaniments. When a friend dies, we cannot
believe him taken from us at first;—we cannot believe ourselves to be
in any new place when we are just come to it. When we are told a thing,
we assent to it, we do not doubt it, but we do not feel it to be true,
we do not understand it as a fact which must take up a position or
station in our thoughts, and must be acted from and acted towards, must
be dealt with as existing: that is, we do not realize it. This seems
partly the reason why, when Almighty God reveals Himself in Scripture to
this man or that, he, on the other hand, asks for some sign whereby he
shall know that God has spoken. Doubtless sinful infirmity sometimes
mixed itself up in such questions, {95} as in the case of Zacharias, who
being a Priest in the Temple, the very dwelling-place of the Living God,
where, if any where, Angels were present, where, if any where, God would
speak, ought to have needed nothing whereby to realize to himself God's
power, God's superintending eye, God's faithfulness towards the house
of Israel and its priests. Under the same feeling, though blamelessly,
Gideon asked for the miracle upon the fleece. He could not bring himself
to believe that he was to be what God's Angel had declared. What?
he, the least of his father's house, and his family poor in
Manasseh, how could he understand that he was to be the greatest
champion of Israel against the Midianites? Not that he doubted it, for
God had said it; but he could not feel, think, speak, act as if it were
true. If he attempted to do so, it was in an unreal way, and he spoke
and acted unnaturally and on a theory, on a view of things which he had
mastered one minute and which was gone the next. The special favour of
God towards him, according to the words, "The Lord is with thee,
thou mighty man of valour!" [Judges vi. 12.] seemed like a dream,
and confused him. So he said "If now so it be, certain consequences
flow from it; if God is with me, it is the God of miracles who is with
me, who can change the creature as He will; may He then vouchsafe to do
so! that I may have the full impression on my soul, heart, and mind, of
what my reason receives; that I may be familiarized to this strange and
overpowering Providence, that I should be raised above my brethren, and
made God's minister to them for good." And therefore he {96} asked,
first that the fleece might be wet, then that it might be dry; not as
evidence whereon to build his faith, but as a manifestation impressing
his imagination and heart.

In somewhat the same way we are told of Jacob also; "when he saw
the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob
their father revived." [Gen. xiv. 27.] Jacob, to be sure, did doubt
what his sons reported, from distrust of them; yet the mere sight of the
waggons did not serve to prove their veracity nearly so much, as to
quiet his perplexed imagination, and to reconcile it to the sudden news.
That news was more startling, than the reporters were untrustworthy.

And thus we Christians, though born in our very infancy into the
kingdom of God, and chosen above all other men to be heirs of heaven and
witnesses to the world, and though knowing and believing this truth
entirely, yet have very great difficulty and pass many years in learning
our privilege. Not any one, of course, fully understands it;—doubtless;
but we have not even a fair, practical hold of it. And here we are, even
on this great Day, this Day of days, on which Christ arose from the
dead,—here are we, on this very Day as infants, lying helpless and
senseless on the ground, without eyes to see or heart to comprehend who
we are.

Surely so it is: and it cannot be denied that we have much to do,
very much, before we rise to the understanding of our new nature and its
privileges, and learn to rejoice and be glad in the Day which the Lord
{97} hath made; "the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that
we may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working
of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places." [Eph. i. 18-20.] Such high words as these are, alas!
scarcely more than mere words when spoken to us; at best, we but believe
them, we do not in any good measure realize them.

Now this insensibility or want of apprehension rises in great
measure, it is scarcely necessary to say, from our exceeding frailness
and sinfulness. Our old nature is continually exerting itself against
the new; "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit." [Gal. v. 17.]
Its desire is towards this world. This world is its food; its eyes
apprehend this world. Because it is what it is, it allies itself to this
world. The world and the flesh form a compact with each other; the one
asks, and the other supplies. Therefore, in proportion as it seduces us
into the world's company, of course, in an equal degree, it blunts our
perception of that world which we do not see; it prevents our realizing
it. And thus one special cause of our difficulty in realizing our
election into the kingdom of heaven is our evil nature, which
familiarizes us with this world, Satan's kingdom, and weighs on us and
pulls us down when we would lift up our hearts, lift them up unto the
Lord. This is certain: yet, besides this, there are certainly other
reasons too which make it {98} difficult for us to apprehend our state, and
cause us to do so but gradually; and which are not our fault, but which
arises out of our position and circumstances.

We are born almost into the fulness of Christian blessings, long
before we have reason. We could not apprehend them at all, and that
without our own fault, when we were baptized; for we were infants. As,
then, we acquire reason itself but gradually, so we acquire the
knowledge of what we are but gradually also; and as it is no fault in
us, but a blessing to us, that we were baptized so early, so, from the
nature of the case, and not from any fault of ours, do we but slowly
enter into the privileges of our baptism. So it is as regards all our
knowledge of ourselves and of our position in the world; we but
gradually gain it. At first children do not know that they are
responsible beings; but by degrees they not only feel that they are, but
reflect on the great truth, and on what it implies. Some persons
recollect a time as children when it fell on them to reflect what they
were, whence they came, whither they tended, why they lived, what was
required of them. The thought fell upon them long after they had heard
and spoken of God; but at length they began to realize what they had
heard, and they began to muse about themselves. So, too, it is in
matters of this world. As our minds open, we gradually understand where
we are in human society. We have a notion of ranks and classes, of
nations, of countries. We begin to see how we stand relatively to
others. Thus a man differs from a boy; he has a general view of things;
he sees their bearings on each other; he sees his own {99} position, sees
what is becoming, what is expected of him, what his duty is in the
community, what his rights. He understands his place in the world, and,
in a word, he is at home in it.

Alas, that while we thus grow in knowledge in matters of time and
sense, yet we remain children in knowledge of our heavenly privileges!
St. Paul says, that whereas Christ is risen, He "hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus." [Eph. ii. 6.] This is what we have still to learn; to know
our place, position, situation as "children of God, members of
Christ, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven." We are risen
again, and we know it not. We begin our Catechism by confessing that we
are risen, but it takes a long life to apprehend what we confess. We are
like people waking from sleep, who cannot collect their thoughts at
once, or understand where they are. By little and little the truth
breaks upon us. Such are we in the present world; sons of light,
gradually waking to a knowledge of themselves. For this let us meditate,
let us pray, let us work,—gradually to attain to a real apprehension
of what we are. Thus, as time goes on, we shall gain first one thing,
then another. By little and little we shall give up shadows and find the
substance. Waiting on God day by day, we shall make progress day by day,
and approach to the true and clear view of what He has made us to be in
Christ. Year by year we shall gain something, and each Easter, as it
comes, will enable us more to rejoice {100} with heart and understanding in
that great salvation which Christ then accomplished.

This we shall find to be one great providential benefit arising from
those duties which He exacts of us. Our duties to God and man are not
only duties done to Him, but they are means of enlightening our eyes and
making our faith apprehensive. Every act of obedience has a tendency to
strengthen our convictions about heaven. Every sacrifice makes us more
zealous; every self-denial makes us more devoted. This is a use, too, of
the observance of sacred seasons; they wean us from this world, they
impress upon us the reality of the world which we see not. We trust, if
we thus proceed, we shall understand more and more where we are. We
humbly trust that, as we cleanse ourselves from this world, our eyes
will be enlightened to see the things which are only spiritually
discerned. We hope that to us will be fulfilled in due measure the words
of the beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God." [Matt. v. 8.] We have good hope, which cannot deceive us,
that if we wait upon God, as the Saints have ever waited, with fastings
and prayers,—if we seek Him as Anna sought Him, or St. Peter at Joppa,
or holy Daniel before them, Christ will be manifested to us; the day
will dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts. We shall see the sign
of the Son of man in heaven; we shall eat of the hidden manna, and
possess that secret of the Lord which is with those that fear Him; and,
like St. Paul, we shall "know whom we have believed, and be
persuaded that He is able to keep that {101} which we have committed unto Him
against that day." [2 Tim. i. 12.]

While then we feel keenly, as we ought, that we do not honour this
Blessed Day with that lively and earnest joy which is its due, yet let
us not be discouraged, let us not despond at this. We do feel
joy; we feel more joy than we know we do. We see more of the next world
than we know we see. If we have duly improved the sacred season which is
now past; if we have in good earnest, and without trifling with
ourselves, denied ourselves in meat and drink, and other indulgences,
according to our strength; if we have been frequent in prayers according
to our opportunities; it cannot be but that a blessing has come upon us,
and is upon us now. We may not be sensible of it, but by and by we shall
know it, when we look back upon it. What has already happened in our
past experience surely is enough to assure us of this. We know in what
way we have been hitherto brought to recognize so much as we do
recognize of our Christian blessedness; how very gradually, how
silently. We may recollect, perhaps, one or other striking occurrence.
Perhaps, as I have said, we can put our hand, as it were, on a time in
our childhood, when the thought first came on us that we had relations
towards other beings, and they towards us, and we marvelled what we
were, and why we existed. Perhaps, in after life, we recollect seasons
when the force of Divine truth came on us more sensibly and distinctly;
but for the most part it is not so. For the most part we have gained
truth, and made progress {102} from truth to truth, without knowing it. We
cannot tell when we first held this, or first held that doctrine, which
is now our joy and treasure. It is "as if a man should cast seed
into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed
should spring and grow up he knoweth not how ... first the blade, then
the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." [Mark iv. 26-28.]
One may see this on all sides; one may see it especially at this time.
God Almighty seems at this time to be mercifully leading numbers on to
the full truth, as it is in Jesus (if it be not presumptuous thus to
speak); He is leading them on, and they do not know it themselves. They
are gradually modifying and changing their opinions, while they think
they remain stationary. Others, perhaps, see how it is with them: they
do not; in due time they will. Such is God's wonderful way. Jacob was at
Bethel before he knew it. We, too, are in the kingdom of grace without
knowing it, and it is manifested in us before we are sensible of the
manifestation. As infants gaze around them, and yet seem to look at
nothing, we too see our privileges, yet do not master them. Let us pray
ever, that we may know more and more what we are, and that we may duly
apprehend our own knowledge; in a word, that we may have right feelings,
and a corresponding creed.

And now, to conclude, for it is hardly befitting on this Day to speak
much, when God has done His greatest work. Let us think of it and of
Him. Let us rejoice in the Day which He has made, and let us be
"willing in the Day of His Power." This is Easter {103} Day. Let us
say this again and again to ourselves with fear and great joy. As
children say to themselves, "This is the spring," or
"This is the sea," trying to grasp the thought, and not let it
go; as travellers in a foreign land say, "This is that great
city," or "This is that famous building," knowing it has
a long history through centuries, and vexed with themselves that they
know so little about it; so let us say, This is the Day of Days, the
Royal Day, the Lord's Day. This is the Day on which Christ arose from
the dead; the Day which brought us salvation. It is a Day which has made
us greater than we know. It is our Day of rest, the true Sabbath. Christ
entered into His rest, and so do we. It brings us, in figure, through
the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham's
bosom. We have had enough of weariness, and dreariness, and
listlessness, and sorrow, and remorse. We have had enough of this
troublesome world. We have had enough of its noise and din. Noise is its
best music. But now there is stillness; and it is a stillness that
speaks. We know how strange the feeling is of perfect silence after
continued sound. Such is our blessedness now. Calm and serene days have
begun; and Christ is heard in them, and His still small voice, because
the world speaks not. Let us only put off the world, and we put on
Christ. The receding from one is an approach to the other. We have now
for some weeks been trying, through His grace, to unclothe ourselves of
earthly wants and desires. May that unclothing be unto us a clothing
upon of things invisible and imperishable! May we grow in grace, and in
the {104} knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, season after season, year after
year, till He takes to Himself, first one, then another, in the order He
thinks fit, to be separated from each other for a little while, to be
united together for ever, in the kingdom of His Father and our Father,
His God and our God.